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Welcome to the second edition of “The Final IV”. This will be a weekly series where we break down the Top 4 events, matches, wrestlers, promotions, and anything else in between, in relation to the crazy world of professional wrestling. This is intended to be a series written to be short, sweet and to the point on each topic. So, without any further ado, let’s get started!
Today, we dissect the Top IV moments that took place at WWE Crown Jewel. This event came across as rather strange, unpredictable and just plain… weird? For a lack of a better word or phrase. Nevertheless, let’s get started and dive right into all the controversial happenings from WWE’s latest showing.
The feud between Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman was reignited through an unfortunate turn of events. Roman Reigns was forced to vacate the WWE Universal Championship due to his battle with Leukemia, changing plans for a Triple Threat match between the three men into a vacant championship encounter between “The Beast Incarnate” and “The Monster Among Men”.
The match began with Baron Corbin taking a cheap shot on Strowman, attacking him from behind with the Universal Title to lead into an F-5 by Brock Lesnar. After four F-5’s in total, Brock Lesnar pinned Braun Strowman and became the new Universal Champion. Obviously, many fans in the WWE Universe were disgusted and angered by this booking decision.
I may very well be in the minority, but I am actually okay with how this played out. When you look at how everything took place in this match, it’s the perfect setup to build Braun Strowman back up as the babyface monster. Braun Strowman was royally screwed, no doubt about it. One can argue had WWE not have turned Braun Strowman heel in an attempt to get Roman Reigns over as a babyface with the fans, perhaps none of this would have happened. We would be talking about Braun Strowman becoming your new Universal Champion right now. However, that is not the case. WWE has to dig themselves out of this pit and turn chicken sh*t into chicken salad.
Brock Lesnar will be your Universal Champion heading into WrestleMania, that’s not changing any time soon in my opinion. I think the best thing WWE could do is build Braun back up. Let him get his revenge on Baron Corbin first. Let Corbin throw everything at Braun, including the kitchen sink (metaphorically speaking) to keep Braun at bay. Build up the character of Braun Strowman. Let him chase Lesnar for the Universal Championship. Allow for Braun Strowman to win the Royal Rumble next year, or at least earn a shot against Lesnar in some other capacity following the Royal Rumble event in February. Gain the confidence back into his character from the fans perspective. Let the payoff happen with Braun Strowman going over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 35 to allow for Braun to have his big moment on the grandest stage of them all.
At the end of the day, it’s highly unlikely that we will see Roman Reigns returning to the WWE any time soon. WWE needs to execute fast by giving the fans a solid babyface they can get behind and love, without forcing fans to like Braun. I believe Braun has a bright future with the WWE as a top guy. Brock is the catalyst and the perfect heel to put over Braun Strowman. Remember, it took a total of four – FOUR F-5’s to take out Braun Strowman. That’s quite a feat. Not many guys can get up from one F-5, let alone four of them.
We closed out WWE Crown Jewel with a match that, quite frankly, was the only match that had a strong build up amongst all the controversy surrounding the entire event. Triple H and Shawn Michaels reuniting as “D-Generation X” to take on “The Brothers of Destruction”, Kane and The Undertaker in a tag team match that many felt would never happen.
During the early portion of the match, Triple H took a bad bump after he was tossed into the turnbuckle hard, then landed awkwardly on the floor. You can visibly tell that Triple H was in pain and in a lot of trouble. Being the true professional and in-ring general that Triple H is, he continued the match and wrestled with practically one arm. Shawn, Undertaker and Kane carried the bulk of the match through its conclusion. Triple H hit a Pedigree on Kane to score the winning pinfall for DX, as Hunter and Shawn celebrated their victory to conclude one of the most controversial and strangest wrestling events in recent memory.
Hunter is one of the toughest guys I have seen in the ring, bar none. I say that with complete admiration and the utmost respect. Here’s a guy that finished a match with a Torn Quadricep Muscle in 2001, suffering through agonizing pain as he was placed into the Walls of Jericho on the announce table at the conclusion of his match with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. Fast forward to the present day, 17 years later, he’s fighting through a 20-minute plus match with one arm and pulls off a decent performance. Shawn is in his first match back after an eight-year hiatus from the ring, therefore he is placed in a position to carry the match by himself for his team. Then you have The Undertaker and Kane, who are beat up with numerous injuries and have only wrestled a handful of matches this year as well. Somehow, someway, these four legends made the match happen and got through it. The bout surely wasn’t a catch-as-catch-can style of a match or one that would go down as the greatest of all time, but it had its moments and gave the fans their dose of nostalgia.
Triple H proved that he Is still “The Game” and will go to any lengths to finish what he started in the ring, even at the expense of his health and aging body. Shawn Michaels did well, in spite of the ring rust and lack of hair (which is another subject for another day, mind you.). The Undertaker and Kane did their thing and did a good job of carrying the match for DX, especially with everything that had gone down with Triple H.
As of this writing, it is expected that Triple H will be out for quite some time and will be undergoing surgery to repair his torn pectoral muscle.
Now, this is where things start to get very interesting, boy and girls. We expected to see a knockdown, drag-out wrestling match between The Miz and Dolph Ziggler. They are two of the hardest workhorses in the WWE today, arguably. Two men that are currently heels on their respective brands but made for what could have been an intriguing encounter.
After an early attack by The Miz, he apparently injures himself exiting the ring and clutches his leg. The Miz argues back and forth with WWE officials and Shane McMahon, pleading and begging to continue the match even though Miz can barely stand on his own two feet. The referee originally decides to forfeit the match and give Ziggler the victory. Shane McMahon steps in and basically says this is not the way it’s going to go down, as he places himself in the match as The Miz’s replacement.
Not Rey Mysterio. Not Jeff Hardy. Not Randy Orton. No one else from the SmackDown Live roster. Nope! Shane goes into business for himself and takes charge. He not only competes in the match against Dolph Ziggler, but he defeats Dolph with the Coast-to-Coast turnbuckle dropkick then pins Dolph for the victory.
I look at this as a golden opportunity to do something special. The seeds were planted less than a week ago on SmackDown Live, when Shane threatened the four competing SmackDown Live World Cup qualifiers that if they fail to bring the World Cup trophy to SmackDown Live, they will lose their jobs. This is a red flag. A seed planted by Shane McMahon for what is an impending heel turn.
Now, we have Shane McMahon as the winner of the first ever WWE World Cup. He is now “The Best in the World” at the expense of The Miz and the WWE Universe. Wouldn’t this be interesting if WWE played this correctly by executing an eventual double turn? Why not have The Miz come back from his “injury” as a babyface, call BS on Shane’s victory, and lead this into Shane turning heel with his ego getting the best of him (he is a “McMahon” after all.) by having a program between The Miz and Shane McMahon that can grow into a huge storyline that will rally the WWE Universe to get behind The Miz and take down Shane O’Mac?
What’s the payoff, you may ask? You can go several ways with this. The Miz can still lose his job, if Shane starts to power trip and wants to put a halt on The Miz entirely. Paige and Shane can play off each other as that “Good Cop/Bad Cop” in the authority figure role for SmackDown Live. Miz can get the babyface push that would eventually lead to him taking Shane McMahon down, extracting his revenge and then going on to getting a future WWE Championship match down the road in 2019. We could see Shane dethroned as SmackDown Live Commissioner and replaced with either Paige (if she were to be promoted), or a past or present WWE Superstar of her choosing.
You can see the possibilities that can be played and toyed with out of this angle. At the end of the day, we have to take the bad and turn it into good… or rather something special.
Time to end this edition of The Final IV on a good and positive note. AJ Styles has busted his ass off and has been overshadowed (to an extent) by everything else that has occurred in the WWE. Let us not forget that AJ Styles has now held the WWE Championship for approximately 361 days, surpassing Kevin Nash (“Big Daddy Cool” Diesel) in days held as WWE Champion (Nash’s record was 358 days). AJ has been on a Phenomenal (pun intended) run as WWE Champion since capturing title last year against Jinder Mahal.
AJ has gone on to challenge Brock Lesnar in a “Champion vs Champion” match at Survivor Series 2017. In spite of the loss, AJ proved he could hang with Lesnar and came very close to winning the match for his brand. After this event, he went on to have feuds with the likes of Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, along with memorable feuds with Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe. AJ defeated Samoa Joe at Crown Jewel, cementing his place as WWE Champion leading into the Survivor Series. Now that Brock Lesnar has recaptured the WWE Universal Championship for the RAW Brand, it is safe to assume that we will be witnessing a rematch between he and AJ Styles.
The question remains: Can AJ Styles defeat Brock Lesnar? Can AJ overcome his past defeat and find a way to escape “Suplex City” by slaying the Beast once and for all?
Win, lose or draw. You cannot deny how hard AJ Styles has worked this year for the WWE. He is arguably the true “Best in the World” and has done everything that one could possibly accomplish in the wrestling industry since the early 2000’s. Ring of Honor. Impact Wrestling (TNA). NJPW. WWE. The man has done it all and has continued to get better and better with each passing year. 2018 can quite possibly be his best year to date, on a mainstream level.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of “The Final IV’. What are your thoughts on WWE Crown Jewel? Until then, I will see you next time!
